Independence Day 4k Ultra-HD [Blu-ray] [Region B]

Classic good

After the surprise hit of 1994, STARGATE, director Roland Emmerich was given a budget that would make possible a film that would eventually be one of the highest grossing movies of all time. The ground-breaking special effects went on to win an Oscar, & many of these, the miniatures, C.G.I. & digital effects are examined & explained in the comprehensive 'special features' which comprises the second of this 2 disc presentation. INDEPENDENCE DAY in this 'definitive edition' contains scenes not in the original cut, of which some make sense & others superfluous, but all most likely edited for time. For a sci-fi adventure film, the script throughout is eceptionally good with only minor cringe-making moments. The military & technical installations are authentic & the many crowd scenes, in particular, the 'panic in the streets' sequences are entirely believable & well-handled. The excellent cast, headed by Will Smith & Jeff Goldblum have well-drawn characters & have a terrific rapport in their scenes together. The 2 female leads are strong & also perfectly cast, as are all the supporting actors, but it is the rôle of President that keeps the whole thing together & here Bill Pullman surely gives the performance of his career. The rousing speech he gives just before the final showdown, is a well written piece of patriotic jargon & gift to any actor, though his character taking part in the aerial battle is open to contention! Look out especially for the humorous reference to 2001: A SPACE ODESSEY, the benchmark on which all future Sci-Fi films would follow & improve in the way of special effects, as does this film & others afterwards No mention is made of the music in the 'special features' , which is a glaring oversight, however, Luton-born David Arnold has delivered a score that matches the scale of the production completely & is without question the best film & tv composer in this country. (For all fans of this film, & soundtrack enthusiasts, I strongly recommend the INDEPENDENCE DAY ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK CD.) This re-mastered DVD is superb quality & the value-for-money aspect cannot be underestimated. A bargain! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. (Delivery was quick)

If the theatrical version was good, the extend version is even better. And the image and sound are great.

Note: This is a review of the 4K UHD version of the film. This film is on of my top three, if not favourite films of all time! I was waiting for this to be released for ages.. and by that i mean both the theatrical and extended versions on Blu-ray or UHD, and that's exactly what you get on here, not only both the Blu-Ray and 4K-UHD versions, but both the theatrical and extended versions on both formats in the box (Bluray versions on one disk, UHD versions on another disk, and the extras being on a third disk), and yes, they work fone on a UK UHD player. On to the visual quality of the movie itself, there is a slight bit of grainy'ness to both the Bluray and UHD versions, but you get this a lot in movies that were not made in HD formats in the conversaion to HD process, and i guess its one of those things. What i will say though, is that watching it on UHD 4K is still the best way to watch this film in my opinion, as it has the edge in detail, even though the difference between Bluray and UHD versions isn't massive to the eye but nonetheless noticable, but what probablky makes the difference the most suprisingly, is the HDR in the 4K version, it makes the lighting in the movie less bright and more subdued, it doesn't make the picture 'dark' it just makes it more realistically lit, which gives it a much nicer and movie looking look to the UHD version, which you will notice if you put on the Bluray version and then watch the same scene in UHD with HDR, watch the sneve near the beginning where the President of the USA is sitting down for breakfast in the whitehouse and the scene after where father and somn are playing chess on the park for example, and you will see what HDR adds to the look of the movie. So in my opinion, having the slight grainy'ness of the conversation is well worth the extra detail you get overall, and for the HDR which adds surprisingly a lot to the look of the movie, and overall this is the best way to watch the movie, certainly in my opinion, and as i say, i say this as someone who rates it as probably my favourate movie of all time.

Roland Emmerich directs this production from 1996 which he also co-wrote with Dean Devlin his long term writing partner they have also written Universal Soldier from 1992 and Stargate from 1994. Independence Day has an ensemble cast including Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Mary McDonnell, Judd Hirsch and the late Robert Loggia who bring to life in this homage to 1950’s B-movies with great gusto and style to all roles and play them for all their worth, the story concerning the Invasion of Earth from a malevolent race of Aliens with superior technology all that humanity has to fight them is its willingness to work together and a scientist called David Levinson played by Jeff Goldblum. This 20th anniversary version improves from the first Blu-ray release from 2007 which didn’t include the “Special Version” this 2016 release is now a two disc set and includes two cuts of the film the original theatrical release with the running time of 145 minutes and a special version with a running time of 153 minutes which was the same content as the 2001 double DVD version with the exception of a new documentary called “Independence Day: - A legacy Surging Forward” on the bonus 2016 Blu-ray disc. Comparing all the previous incarnations of this title the 2016 version has marked improvements in picture and sound with a better colour palette and the greater depth of field because of the wider range of blacks which gives better detail the audio track also brings to life a wide range of sounds not heard on previous versions the exploding buildings rumble from the speakers and the roar of jet engines as the aircraft traverse the what looks like the Grand Canyon may have you ducking in your home The 2016 re-issue on a double Blu-ray disc-set is on 50GB region B disc’s and is encoded using the codec MPEG 4 in 1080p resolution in the original theatrical aspect ratio of 2.39:1 The audio track English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48 kHz, 24-bit) this Blu-ray also includes soundtracks in French: DTS 5.1, French: Dolby Digital Mono German: DTS 5.1Italian: DTS 5.1, Portuguese: Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish: DTS 5.1, Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 kbps) Theatrical version on this Blu-ray Theatrical Cut is 145 minutes MPEG-4; European French DTS/Canadian French DD; Brazilian Portuguese (48 kHz/448kbps); Castilian Spanish DTS/Latin American Spanish DD; DTS 5.1 dubs are all 48 kHz/768kbps/24-bit; DD Mono dub is 48 kHz/192kbps. There are subtitles which include the following: - English for the hard of hearing, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish. The bonus disc has the following features: - new documentary called “Independence Day: - A legacy Surging Forward”, A Gag reel, creating reality, ID4 Invasion Mock-umentary, the Making of ID4, Combat review, Monitor Earth Broadcast and a Gallery.

1996.... Independence Day saw it's release and quickly became a "must see" blockbuster. I remember going to the cinema 3 times to see this in the space of a couple of weeks. One of my favourite movies of all time and yet it divides people. Some saw Independence Day as just a silly over the top film that isn't anything special. Yet it is in a way a special film. The special effects were almost unlike much we had seen before on that scale. It had a fantastic cast that clicked on screen so well. Many "on the edge of your seat" moments, mixed with just the right amount of comedy and sadness. Independence Day was a game changer for the "disaster movie" genre but also a great story telling of a then modern age alien invasion. The film looks great in 4K and the added bonus of being able to watch the Special Edition with some scenes that I feel help the film more than their absence in the Theatrical Cut. It looks amazing, it sounds amazing!

It was fun watching Independence Day 1996 film again, it has been a long time since I have seen this. The casting members were the right fit for this movie. The concept is fun and humorous to watch with all the actors given the correct roles. It was too overly dramatized in some scenes for 2 hours and 25 minutes straight but I would watch this again. The fashion of that time mid 90s made me laugh cause it was so minimalist and all the actors were so cute back then.

Good film